Gfx Card dying. New PC or just replace Gfx?

Crownfall

Crownfall

Crownfall

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Joined
9 Mar 2018
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5
Hi all,

Long time lurker and a long time attempted learner of all things PC. (Not so successful.)

I'm in a hard spot on deciding what to do about my PC and hoping someone can weigh in. Recently, during gaming, the screens would turn off and the tower would turn the fans up to max itself. I could still hear what was going on and from the noises, could hear that the games themselves were still "working".

After making sure temperature wasn't an issue, adjusting fan speeds, applying new paste and completely dusting it out, my secondary monitor showed artefacts (is that what it's called? checkered discolouring) and then turned off. Everything from the 2nd monitor was "pushed" to the first. On powering it back up, the monitor is working. So it only seems to be when gaming.

Here are the specs I'm running at the moment:
Akasa Freedom Xone Mid ATX Case
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Unlocked Processor
Gigabyte GA-P67A-D3-B3 SKT-1155 Mobo (Rev 1.0)
Nvidia GTX 770 2GB
Corsair 2x 4GB DDR3 1600mhz (I think)
Arctic Freezer 13 CPU Cooler
650W ARIANET Gamer 80PLUS Power Supply
(One extra Hard drive and some extra fans.)

So the problem is that I don't know if I just go and grab a graphics card and then upgrade the rest later or just switch out everything for new, considering the age of most of my kit. Perfect timing to have to buy due to miners, etc, I know :(. Looking at benchmarks it seems like from a 770, if I want to step up performance would be 980ti, 1060, 1070ti or 1080.

There's a Computer fair on tomorrow and I wondered if I should go with the intention to grab a PC or GFX card? Any insight would be greatly appreciated as I'm getting conflicting information from my friends.

Cheers,

Crownfall
 
currently on deal. (personally wouldn't touch pail dual with a barge pole)

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,751.06 (includes shipping: £11.10)
​

GTX 1060 versions would be next step up from your GTX 770 2gb and others would be a jump - gtx 1070ti prices are more then gtx 1080 is currently on deal

what is your monitor res and refresh rate ?
 
I'm sorry orbitalwalsh, I'm not sure on the monitors.

The monitor that artifacted was an AOC e2250Swda Widescreen LED Monitor. The other is a HDMI monitor that I don't have specs for as it was given to me by a friend.

I'm guessing from your reply, that you think I should just replace the graphics and not the whole PC?
 
Crownfall said:
I'm sorry orbitalwalsh, I'm not sure on the monitors.

The monitor that artifacted was an AOC e2250Swda Widescreen LED Monitor. The other is a HDMI monitor that I don't have specs for as it was given to me by a friend.

I'm guessing from your reply, that you think I should just replace the graphics and not the whole PC?
Click to expand...

was just listing current deal prices of the card models- should give you in site if you need to change

is gaming on just one monitor, then main one without the 2nd plugged in fine ?

normally when your gaming and GPU is giving up its last leg, you see line glitches, patches - crashing

as with monitor, and if need for upgrading, gtx 1060 3/6gb would do you fine for driving one 1080p 60hz screen

have you updated the latest NVidia drivers ?
 
I haven't tested that actually, I assumed with both monitors turning off that the problem would happen to both.

The 2nd monitor definitely showed glitches/patching. It was like the monitor went diamond checkerboard and then turned off.

Edit: Yes, latest Nvidia drivers are in. Checked all other drivers too.

Maybe I will just try the graphics card then. I was looking at the 1060 6gb the other day.

Edit: Seeing ASUS GeForce Dual-GTX1060-O6G 6gb card @ £329.99. Is this a good choice?
 
Ah, ok. That put's the brakes on my Graphics card purchase then. I'll get a PSU first then. Any recommendations on a PSU or are they all about the same standard now?
 
Crownfall said:
Any recommendations on a PSU or are they all about the same standard now?
Click to expand...

There are still some dodgy ones floating around. Looking at what's available from OcUK:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £411.41 (includes shipping: £12.60)​
​

Breakdown: 450W will do for a GTX 1060. If you ever added a GTX 1080/Ti or AMD Vega, you'd want 550-650W. The Seasonic Focus Gold 550W with a ten year warranty is a steal right now, on offer. So if budget allows, don't hesitate.
 
Webzta said:
I went with a superflower one reccomended on here - suggest picking one that is unlikely to cause coil whine.
Click to expand...

Super flower are an OEM like seasonic (focus) and FSP and are very good ! They make EVGA units to main a big brand .
Thing with coil whine, you will always get it! Most will never hear it or have the need to come across it (extreme loads) . Though if you want to hear it, run Unigine Valley at 720p high textures and then when you close it... Your system sings for a little. But your general gaming and usage, shouldn't hear a thing :)
 
The Seasonic Focus Plus 550W
^
At the current price, this PSU is a golden buy. And with a 10 year warranty, you know it'll last. Buy it.
Get yourself something like a GTX 1060 on sale right now (buy both at the same time, why not?)

Eventually you will need to replace everything you have as 2500K (any 4 core 4 thread i5, really) is quite obsolete these days. You can slightly ameliorate the situation by overclocking to high 4's (4.6-4.8Ghz kind of thing) on your CPU but it is still a dinosaur and needs replacing. Don't overclock the CPU without first having a high quality aftermarket heatsink. It's old. You don't want to BBQ it.

If you don't already have a good cooler, I'd suggest just picking up something like a Noctua NHU12S or NHU14S and then carrying it over to your next build perhaps when Ice Lake CPUs are out and there have been a couple of bios updates and the platform is nice and settled.
 
the answer here is simply, was the system doing what you need it to? if yes then just buy a new GPU a 1060 3 is a lot better than your 770 so anything from there up will feel a lot better.

you haven't said if you have an SSD? this will also make your system feel a hell of a lot faster.

any finally i am assuming you had the system from new? so the 2500k as to be what 6/7 years old now. meaning the "ARIANET Gamer" is also 6/7 years only. you need to kill it with fire and replace. am not saying the units not good but after 6/7 years a good PSU is getting to the end of its life.
 
P4Clock said:
the answer here is simply, was the system doing what you need it to? if yes then just buy a new GPU a 1060 3 is a lot better than your 770 so anything from there up will feel a lot better.

you haven't said if you have an SSD? this will also make your system feel a hell of a lot faster.

any finally i am assuming you had the system from new? so the 2500k as to be what 6/7 years old now. meaning the "ARIANET Gamer" is also 6/7 years only. you need to kill it with fire and replace. am not saying the units not good but after 6/7 years a good PSU is getting to the end of its life.
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While I disagree about killing it with fire (lots of V.O.C's in there) it should definitely be replaced, as it was trash even new.
 
mistersprinkles said:
While I disagree about killing it with fire (lots of V.O.C's in there) it should definitely be replaced, as it was trash even new.
Click to expand...

haha yer that was a little over kill but my point did get across, we have all have poo PSU's and TBF all the ones i have known have always worked.

i had a very expensive 1050w PSU die on me, and my brothers £55 piece of poo from maplin powered gis two GTS's for a good 6 years, my point was after a good run like 6/7 years even a good one need laying to rest
 
Really appreciate all of the advice here, thank you!

After reading the above, I just thought "**** it." I went ahead and got myself a new PSU, SSD and I grabbed a 1060 as well!
It actually turns out that I had already ditched the PSU! I found a 650w EVGA PSU in there when I came to replace it but replaced it anyway.

To confirm, I grabbed:
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB SSC GAMING ACX 3.0.
Seasonic Focus Plus 550W Gold 80 Plus.
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD.

The 1060 should arrive tomorrow so I'll be sure to report back.

Thanks again!
 
Crownfall said:
Really appreciate all of the advice here, thank you!

After reading the above, I just thought "**** it." I went ahead and got myself a new PSU, SSD and I grabbed a 1060 as well!
It actually turns out that I had already ditched the PSU! I found a 650w EVGA PSU in there when I came to replace it but replaced it anyway.

To confirm, I grabbed:
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB SSC GAMING ACX 3.0.
Seasonic Focus Plus 550W Gold 80 Plus.
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD.

The 1060 should arrive tomorrow so I'll be sure to report back.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

nice! 550w is overkill for that unit but with 10 yr warranty- should see another 2 gens of GPUs :)
 
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